Reporter staff
Repairs were under way Wednesday at Kent-Meridian High School after a fire on Monday afternoon damaged the art building on campus.
Kent School District officials expect the building to be fixed when classes begin Aug. 31.
Two classrooms were heavily damaged and another classroom and workroom, as well as the hallways, had minor damage, Kent School District spokesman Chris Loftis said.
No one was in the building at the time of the fire. There were no injuries to civilians or firefighters, said Kyle Ohashi, spokesman for the Kent Fire Department Regional Fire Authority.
The two-alarm fire, which was first reported at 4:23 p.m., started outside on the west side of the building where tall shrubs burned, allowing the fire to get into the small attic space of the single-story, flat-roofed building, Ohashi said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the cause of the fire remained under investigation. Ohashi said the investigator wanted to see security camera tapes before making a ruling.
The fire broke out the windows on the west side, resulting in a small amount of fire and smoke damage to the interior, Ohashi said.
Firefighters from the Kent, Renton and Tukwila fire departments found most of the fire in the two-foot deep attic. The fire required firefighters to cut back large sections of the roof to reach the fire and ensure it was extinguished, Ohashi said.
Crews rotated regularly because of the heat. The fire struck during the summer break period, so only a few students were on the K-M campus, Ohashi said.
In addition to the fire departments, King County Medic One and the Zone 3 Fire Explorers provided support and rehabilitation.
Loftis said on Wednesday he did not have a cost estimate on the damage, but the repairs would be covered by the district’s insurance, minus a $25,000 deductible.
He said district crews were on the scene Monday evening and immediately got to work boarding up the building and assessing the damage.
“When the fire trucks pulled out our engineers, maintenance and facility people pulled in,” he said.
Loftis said if repairs are delayed, there are two empty portables on campus that could be used temporarily for art classes.
“We don’t think we are going to need to use those,” he said.
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